tonylauno1

Welcome, nice to see another convert. I got rid of my Honda too and have not looked back since and never will. The red looks good in the photo, any color will fade or lose it's shine, if you don't cut & polish on a regular basis and yes especially on colors such as red or yellow being the most common ones you see... Great color and wheels on a great car. Looks fantastic. I once drove a very low e46 and it was still very comfortable so I hope this will so low will still be more comfortable than the Honda. This isn't very positive but I just have to add, those rear wheels have a huge camber no doubt the tyres will wear very quickly on the inside. Just watch out during the wet when it wears down, and might pay to correct the camber if you are keeping it long term. Wouldn't know if it is possible let alone how.

Bank statement only shows the incorrect amount they charged and receipts again only show the incorrect transaction which they charged. I guess the only way to prove your innocent is that cctv which shows you picked up the 2nd pump (98) instead of the first 1st pump (91) - then again innocent until proven guilty, so show me the prove BP

I'm sure the cctv will be able tell whether you picked up the 1st, 2nd or 3rd pump. Just like what everyone else said, ignore them. If it's a small place and that's the only place for 98octane then go see the manager and ask him to get the footage for yours and his sake as you would like to continue to shop there. If you want to have a little fun then tell them to you will only speak to Police then you can tell your side of the story or tell them to contact your lawyer and give them any old lawyers name over the phone. I would certainly talk to the manager to clear up any misunderstanding otherwise you might be banned from all BP then you have no where else to get 98 octane

Call around and check for prices, if you want high performance tyres try Direzza, GridIII, C.Drive, Proxex CT01 or others such as Proxes 4 or A.Drive - 55 series not popular so some of these suggestions may not be available.

It doesn't get any ignorant than that. You can bet your bottom dollar that she does this wherever she goes.

Thanks for the advice.

The scratch is minor and it will probably polish out but this guy even denied being in possession of those boxes which ticked me off. I wanna see how far this would go and make him pay or make his life hell. Will talk to Police too.

Thanks. I didn't think this idiot would push the boxes as he was putting it down or picking it up. I saw large patches of dust had been disturbed and on closer inspection, there were millions of tiny scratches. Didn't think an incident like this could interest the cops, didn't even cross my mind to call them. It two large boxes so all he needed to do was move a little when putting it down and picking it up and that created the long scratches. The worse part was the raised section in the middle, that ridge on the bonnet took most of the weight and created most damage. By the way he is with another pharmacy in the city and he is denying it. The lady at the pharmacy witness the boxes on car but is standing on his side. Check my post above this.

Decided to call Insurance and they called pharmacy to check whether boxes were delivered at that time and the lady at pharmacy said yes boxes were delivered and boxes were on the car. She even went as far as saying that the boxes were only on the car for 2 seconds and boxes were lifted off not dragged and there was no damages. She was standing 6 feet away, no way she could see the scratches. Obviously she was standing on this delivery person's side, a check on the car registration reviewed that it belong to another pharmacy which suggest they know each other because goods would have been delivered regulary. Now it's their words against mine, and let's hope the insurance company can make this guy pay.

Obviously when you damage my car. I should have mentioned an incident where a lady open the passenger car door hit my car lightly, no damages done, I didn't even open my mouth. Now, I am a very peaceful man.

Once in supermarket carpark, I was in the car and a lady was hit my old Honda pretty hard with her car door, again just looked at me briefly. When she moved away, enough room for me to open my car door, I opened it extremely hard to hit her car. There was a huge dent in her 2000 Cefiro and she looked at me longer this time and I just said "Yeah, thats right b*h, What are you going to do about that!" This Honda of mine had lots of dents & scratches on every panel and self-repair panels after an collision. Lowered, loud, mags, tints + this "gangster looking Asian" (just looks only, far from one) - I think it must be a combination of this which resulted in her simply walking away. Don't think I will be repeating this performance anytime soon as I have sold this Honda.

Dents & scratches on doors are in the same category as this - hence the title. I should have added "dents" as well. I did see another lady open her 180sx passenger door and lightly hit my e46. Just looked at me briefly, didn't even say sorry. What a B*H... Scratches on corner of bumper, and a small dent just above the scratch bumper in the metal part below the lights. There are lots of cat around my area and at night the cars likes to rest on bonnet where it's warm and yes a few scratches too. I won't mention other scratches which came with the car when I bought it.

This morning, around 10am, at Royal Oak roundabout, outside the pharmacy which is beside LJ Hooker. My car was parked right outside the pharmacy and next to me was a no parking area and I was directly opposite my car across the street in Medlab. This 98 silver Toyota Corsa DZB621 pulled up, unloaded two boxes from the passenger seat and put it on my bonnet. I thought it can't be that bad and on closer inspection, it looked like the boxes had been dragged across the bonnet and left millions of scratches about 2 feet long down the driver side of the bonnet. When confronted he even denied having boxes, his reaction was by playing dumb speaking broken English, he had no idea this Asian could speak English and swear too. Once he found out, he started speaking probably. Denied the whole thing. The lady in the pharmacy was speaking to the security guard at Royal Oak Mall, who just happen to walk pass, and she said he was delivering boxes and had slipped. Just because I was talking louder and swearing at him and calling him a f**king retarted muppet, both of them thought he had done nothing wrong and I was the bad guy. He still denied everything, no boxes & nothing put on car bonnet. It is ignorant people like this who does not value and respect other peoples property that pissed me off. No wonder drivers of new SUV use two car parks to avoid ignorant assholes like this guy. - This guy was a delivery boy, the lady from the pharmacy claims that he slipped and drop the boxes on my car, I also saw him slipped when he got into the pharmacy and he dropped the box kicking one of them while the other one fell over. Theres two points that I like to point out 1) He is ignorant and does not respect or value other peoples property and can't speak for himself, need lady from pharmacy and the security guard to help him - This boy must be a retarded muppet. 2) This delivery boy had only one job and that is to deliver boxes, and if he cannot even deliver boxes probably it doesn't say much about his ability. He slipped after pulling boxes from passenger seat and walked one step and he slipped again after 7 steps when he got into the pharmacy, stumbling over the boxes... I took down his number plate so I could let everyone know who he is, I want to make him infamous. The security guard took down my number plate because of my bad behaviour, his own word. He thought I was going to get this guy and make him pay for it or something. By the way, this guy if you can call him a guy. From his looks, behaviour & demeanour; he is the kind of "man" that would scream like a little girl, running away, calling for his mum when he sees a bad guy.... I tell you, I think I even smell sh*t when I stopped him getting into his car by closing his car door. He must have sh*t himself.

Apologize for asking this non 2007 323i question but what is wrong with the Jap e46 gearbox? I have a e46 imported from Japan, what should I be worried about?

Simon is right, it is overpriced. Anyone in Chch might as well take a trip to Auckland and get this M3 Evo with SMG gearbox and tan leather at 70,000km for $32,000 Then again you never know, someone down in Chch needs a M3 quick and just buy it

I have been told by my mechanic to avoid Lumley & Protecta and go for Autosure however Autosure are only available on cars sold through certain dealers and same with Motorplus. I could go for AA (have to get AA Inspection first) or Orbit (through the dealer I bought from). Does anyone have any recommendations? I have spent about $2000 on 528i since June 07 on 528i so was thinking I should take advantage of mechanical insurance as the same problem will occur on the 328ci. (Dashboard pixel display, thermostat housing, crankshaft sensor)

In my opinion when buying one of these cars you got to have leather, there is nothing deluxe about cloth... No leather, no deal

I look at text at red light and if it is not important or personal then I get my passenger to read or text, otherwise I just make a call. People on the other end of the phone always wonder why I suddenly say hang on a minute and go silence. That is because I am a man and I can't do two things at once and have to focus on indicating and changing lanes or making a turn

I got the same problem with 97 528i at 125k mileage even after transmission flush, change is very rough from 1st to 2nd - it's a little better after warmed up. So what was the problem and where did your old man go to fix the problem?Another problem I am having is the at low rpm changing from 3rd to 2nd it takes a second or two before it changes. The mechanic said it's the rubber lining inside the chamber which is leaking therefore it takes a second or two longer to build up pressure before it can change. He is going to get some Wurf addictives for me but I didn't ask him about the rough change from 1st to 2nd. Both of these problems exist in my old high mileage Honda and after a bottle of Motorup for the transmission all problem has disappeared...

According to this all e36, e46 & e39 uses GM or ZF transmission. So if they are Japan import then all those GM & ZF are built with local market components? http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/Tranny/SD92-113.pdf

The housing cost $228 and it was fixed on the same day- might sound cheap but add $305 labour + other stuff & GST = $620. Wasn't prepared to wait 5 weeks for the metal one which cost $400+.

A quick search on the Trademe for 318i under 10K price and under 100k mileage shows a few 318i e36 - change the search to 150k mileage and you get even more ads. http://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categoryat...order=price_asc

Even this 89 Accord I had for 12 years, spents only $2000 in 12 years only problem was the carrburettor & cold/warm idle otherwise nothing needed to be fix. It has always made lots & lots of short trips, ie engine not even warmed up yet but at 120k the carburettor has had it. Cars with 160-180k mileage will require some maintainance, even on Jap unless you are lucky and previous owner has maintain it well. Might be a little more on BMW as parts don't last as long from what I have read on Internet forums about people changing the entire cooling system because when one fails then others will follow soon. Might need new shocks at that mileage too, check suspension components and shocks. You might find lots of problems on the Internet because I believe BMW has the biggest forums online and people with problems do post them online. Don't let them put you off, instead use it as a way to educate yourself about the kind of money you would need to spend so you don't get caught out. Go drive these 318i and make sure you like it, and if you really do then you will find way to maintain it To me maintaining does hurt the pocket but whenever I jump into the car, all is forgotten while I am driving Those figure from greenhouse.gov.au are way too optimistic, they might be correct for a Echo or a Prius not a 318i. You might get those figures when the road are straight and flat like freeways in the states, no turns, no uphill etc. The figures below from fueleconomy.gov are pretty accurate for me driving around Auckland hills and stop/start conditions. On the highway you will probably achieve those figures with only driver and keeping it at 100km/h but on highway there are usually a few people in the car and always overtaking so it adds 2/3 L/100km. on fueleconomy.gov (City/Hwy) L/100km 96 BMW 318i - 13.1/9.0 01 BMW 330i - 13.8/9.4 97 BMW 528i - 13.8/9.8 97 Volvo S90 - 13.7/9.8 98 Prelude - 11.8/9.4 92 Inspire - 13.1/10.2 If you really like the 318i after driving a few then take it to Auckland Autoclinic www.autoclinic.co.nz and get a prepurchase inspection. Ask them what kind of repairs are needed in the near future and what are likely to go wrong further down the track with these cars (They service lots of European cars and know a hell of alot about BMW). Tell David or Laurie that Tony Lau ask you to come see them and they will look after you, they charged me an hour's labour to look over my 328ci and were more thorough than this other place that checked my 528i for $150. Remember, drive as many as you can and you might see the difference in performance, I have driven many 528i, 540i, 328ci and a few of them are really slow even with a slight downhill. So make sure you drive lots of 318i - high mileage, low mileage etc - Always buy quality even though purchase price might be cheap but maintenance might prove to be much more expensive than getting a more expensive quality car to begin with.

1) Since it is not a 2.8 or above engine, I am sure you can use 10w/40 or 15w/40 oil which are not expensive. It cost me $50 for oil & filter from a very very experienced mechanic in Manukau when I had my Japanese cars. BMW parts are a little more expensive compared to my older & smaller Honda (I use genuine parts on BMW & Honda) but it's the cost of a good BMW mechanic which makes servicing more expensive. 2) 528i brake disc cost $190 each including labour compared to $150 for my Accord. 528i Brake pads cost $165 including labour compared to $100 for my Accord - The 528i is a bigger heavier car and performs much better than a smaller & lighter accord so I guess that is where the difference is. I don't know about cost of 318i. Parts are not expensive but you probably so see the mechanic more often that you do with a Japanese car. I had a 92 Honda Inspire 2.5L and I travel from 150K to 200K and in those 5 years, I spent $1200 for cv joints, cv boot, radiator head & brake master cylinder. This is not counting things like battery, brakes, tyres, oil change etc, just problems alone. - You really need to spend the money on Europeans cars as they have to be maintain properly. 3) As for fuel economy check out www.fueleconomy.gov - I find it to be quite reliable with the cars that I have owned when driven properly - mind you high mileage cars will use more fuel that what is stated on the website. You can give me a fuel efficient Honda Civic and I can show you how to use lots of fuel It's all in the driving habits. 4) The high repairs costs comes from the previous owners not maintaining properly or not maintaining at all. So service records are a must when buying BMW. You want to look for an owner who loves his BMW and does spend the money, being a high mileage car you will properly need to spend a bit of money too as things will go wrong after all those mileages. Check internet forums and find out what kind of problems to expect so you can budget for repairs and won't get a nasty surprise when you do need to fix something. 5) Alot of owners has repaird their transmission, shock tower, suspension subframe. At that mileage previous owners should have replaces fan belts, tensioner, waterpump, thermostat - ask previous owners for a service history. You can find a nice 328i coupe with full leather at 100k mileage for around $10k - My brother was looking at a couple. It does not use much more fuel than a 318i because it doesn't need as much power to get the heavy car moving. 1.8L is enough for a light Japanese car but are much slower in a heavy BMW.

Well, it is actually the thermostat housing which cracked. The mechanic said the waterpump (plastic impeller) and thermostat looked quite new therefore did not need to change and that the cooling system is running at 9.4psi which should really be 9.0psi according to manufacture's specification but it's not a problem, will recheck in next service. The Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo's that I have seen all uses metal thermostat housing. The mechanic said metal housing were available and it cost twice as much + it would take a few weeks to get it from USA so I settle for the normal plastic ones as I wasn't prepared for the long wait.